Since small niche companies selling obscure details often seem to pop up (and alas, fade away), and since I have had no luck googling for these details, perhaps someone can direct me to a current manufacturer in HO scale of the following
1.) Plastic Drums/BarrelsWhile right now there's a good selection of steel drums available (and I have purchased numbers of them), and as I found out awhile back wooden barrels have been pretty much relegated to alcohol aging processes and yard planters, I could use the very common plastic drum in HO scale, found on fine prototype pallets everywhere (here's a link to one company's sales page, with images) - I though BLMA would have them, but I couldn't find any.
2.) Small propane tanksThe kind you'd find under bar-b-que grills, and (more usefully for me) on the back of fork-lifts - not the home supply kind which there are several models available. They look modlable, so if none are available commercially has anyone built any, say using beads and thin rings of some sort.
3.) More cardboard boxes & Modern Wooden CratesSo Model Railroader in it's recent Station Detailing article had a link to a on-line pdf of cardboard boxes - Yay! Going to the pdf, there's ...two different boxes. Blah. OK, they had to support several different scales, but still. Anyway, much like those paper fold-up containers that were often linked to a few years back, are there any sites with fold-up boxes (yeah, I could photograph some boxes, photoshop them into folding forms, and print them, but still premade stuff can be nice)?In addition, big wooden board crates are just so...'Christmas Story'. Anyone have tips on building modern era wooden shipping crates (looks like plywood with board reinforcement)
For the small propane tanks, I suppose you could check and see what's available in N scale. Might be you'll find an N tank close to the right size to use as a small HO one??
chutton012.) Small propane tanksThe kind you'd find under bar-b-que grills, and (more usefully for me) on the back of fork-lifts - not the home supply kind which there are several models available.
Take a look at the parts sprues when you build a kit. The plastic molding process involves injecting liquid plastic into a mold. To get good flow to small pieces, they shape the mold with small "bulbs" adjacent to the real parts, sometimes beyond the part in the flow path, to allow the mold to fill more completely. These little bulbs are just about the right size and shape for small propane tanks.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.